Higher Ed Marketing & Student Search Services | enrollmentFUEL | image of a sticky note with the words "financial aid" written on it

From Form to Enrollment: How FAFSA Completion Shapes Student Decisions

Fall 2025 new student results are in for schools undergoing financial aid optimization. Of the many interesting things we’re seeing at enrollmentFUEL, FAFSA submitting behavior continues to have a significant impact on yield. FAFSA filing rates and overall yield improved as compared to fall 2024. That yield improvement was driven entirely by FAFSA submitters.

Let’s look at the data:

Some interesting observations:

  • The number of admits who submitted a FAFSA increased 6.8% on average year over year across enrollmentFUEL’s optimization partner schools.
  • The average yield jumped 2.6%, moving from 25.4% to 28%.
  • That yield improvement came from FAFSA submitters, who saw a 6% increase in yield, moving from 44.2% to 50.2%.
  • Yield for non-FAFSA submitters declined by 0.4%, moving from 6.4% to 6%.
  • Across all aid optimization partner schools, the yield gap between FAFSA submitters vs. non-FAFSA submitters grew by 6.3 points.

You’ll notice the word submitters vs. filers when presenting FAFSA behavior. That’s because schools generally don’t know if a student is a FAFSA filer or not—they only know if a student submits a FAFSA to them. What’s the difference? All non-FAFSA submitters aren’t the same. For example, students who indicate that they plan to file for aid on their admission application but don’t submit a FAFSA have the lowest average yield across all our partner schools. However, students who indicate that they don’t plan to file for aid on their admission application and who don’t submit a FAFSA, yield 4.5x higher.  

What’s the point? FAFSA submitting behavior is telling us something. It is up to us as enrollment managers to listen. When a student who applies and indicates that they plan to file for financial aid doesn’t submit a FAFSA, they are telling us that they aren’t enrolling. Remember, for FUEL’s aid optimization partner schools the average yield for non-FAFSA submitters is 6%. For some of our schools, that is as low as 1%.

FAFSA submission is one of the top 10 drivers of students’ enrollment decisions for our partner schools. For some schools, it is more predictive than almost every other student attribute or behavior.

What should you be doing?

  1. Every effort to support FAFSA filing yields results. This isn’t just a financial aid office task; the entire enrollment team should be involved in FAFSA completion outreach and events. Think about hiring consulting or seasonal help to support FAFSA completion if needed. There is a clear return on that investment for most schools.
  2. Are you tracking real-time and year-over-year data for FAFSA submitters? You should be! Submitting a FAFSA continues to be a key driver of potential enrollment. You can’t effectively plan for your incoming class and monitor real-time results in-cycle without taking FAFSA submission behavior into consideration.
  3. Do you have a comprehensive and differentiated communication and outreach strategy to support FAFSA filing? It is critical to identify and support students who need help submitting their FAFSA.

Need help?

enrollmentFUEL offers full service financial aid optimization support for schools, which includes significant data collection, validation, analysis, presentation, and retention. We also offer communication and yield support services as well as strategic enrollment management reviews to identify opportunities for enhanced effectiveness in an increasingly more competitive marketplace.